AtoZ Notebook - Frequently Asked Questions

These are not really FAQs, as users rarely need to ask questions. AtoZ Notebook was designed and built so that even novice PC users could handle the software without needing any assistance or support. It has very few configurable options that can cause confusion, and what you see is very much what you get.

So, a few obscure questions that a user might have:

1. How do I install AtoZ onto a thumb drive?
If you already have AtoZ installed on your PC, you should ensure that the Notebook Location is set to My Documents, otherwise your thumb drive installation will not know where to find it.

After ensuring the above, close AtoZ if open, run the installation program and select your thumb drive as the install folder instead of the default "Program Files" folder. When AtoZ launches, open the Preferences dialog from the Tools menu and select Option 2 - Installation Folder. This will move all Notebooks from "My Documents" into the install folder on your thumb drive and you're good to go.

As AtoZ will be installed on a portable drive, there will not be an icon on every desktop you use it on. This means you will need to double click the program file itself to launch it. This file is called atoz.exe, or just atoz (depends on how your PC is set up), and will be located in the "\AtoZ Notebook\" folder on your thumb drive. It has a yellow icon with a picture of a lock.

If you install onto a thumb drive at a later date (after using it on your PC for some time), some old backups may remain in your "\My Documents\Bad Wolf Software\AtoZ\" folder. If you wish to wipe all AtoZ presence from your PC, these will need to be manually deleted.

Be aware that the speed of AtoZ when run from a plugin drive may vary. This has nothing to do with the software and is down to the quality and speed of your hardware. If your plugin drive 'goes to sleep', you should expect AtoZ to pause every now and then until your drive 'wakes up'.

2. I've forgotten my password. What do I do?
If you have forgotten your password, your current Notebook or Notebooks cannot be opened. If you were smart enough to take backups, and if you remember the password in use when you took the backups, you can roll back to one of those backups. See question 4 below.

If you have no backups, then the data in your Notebooks is not recoverable. You can 'reset' AtoZ to a blank slate by following the instructions given in question 6 below.

3. I want to store my data on my Q drive and install the software on my Z drive. How do I do that?
You can't. The data location is not configurable to this degree. Your data can be stored in one of two places: your My Documents folder (the default location), or your installation folder. To change from one to the other, open the Preferences dialog. The more configurable software is, the more problems the majority of users encounter. AtoZ is not aimed at 'super-users.'

4. How do I roll back to a backup from weeks or months ago?
Close AtoZ Notebook if it is open.

Locate the backup you wish to roll back to. This will be a dated folder with a name similar to "AtoZ Backup - 10 Aug 2011 15-14-10", and will be in whichever location you chose to save it to. Open this folder. It will contain a single folder called "Data". Copy this folder.

Open your current AtoZ Data Location folder. If your Data Location is set to My Documents, then this will be the "\Documents\Bad Wolf Software\AtoZ\" folder. If your Data Location is set to Installation Folder, then that is where it will be. This folder will also contain a folder called "Data" and might contain a folder called "Backup."

Rename the "Data" folder you just found to "Data2", and paste in the backup Data folder you found earlier. Re-Open AtoZ Notebook.

5. Why doesn't it auto-fill my passwords in Firefox like that other password thingy I used to use?
Because it doesn't. If you want AtoZ Notebook to do this, then you're using the wrong product.

6. How do I restore all the original settings of AtoZ, and get back to a blank Notebook and no password?
Close AtoZ Notebook if it is open.

Delete this "Data" folder. Re-open AtoZ Notebook.

But be warned: if you do this you will be deleting all of the contents of all of your Notebooks, and if you are using a licensed version of AtoZ Notebook, you will need to re-enter your license key.